Furnace.



A. MARTIN.

FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED ocr. 26. 1916.

1,224, 199, Patented May 1, 1917.

m: mwms PETERS 50., Pnom-umov. WASHING mN, n c,

ora ion,

ALFRED MARTIN, 0F ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.

FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 1, 1917.

Application filed. October 26, 1916. Serial No. 127,933.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED MARTIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rockford, in the county of Winnebago and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates in general to hotair furnaces for heating air to be circulated through rooms, and has more particular reference to furnaces embodying the subject matter of my Patent No. 1,103,888, dated July 141-, 1914.

In furnaces of the character described in said patent the casing about the heater is of sectional construction so that any section may be removed at will to allow access to the interior of the furnace for the purpose of cleaning and repairing therein. Moreover, the casing is so constructed that it may be easily adapted to furnaces of various design, and includes upright adjustable supports to which the detachable casing sections are secured and which serve to support the furnace top or distributing-pipe hood when the casing sections have been removed. My present invention aims, primarily, to provide improved means for detachably securing the casing sections to the supports with the view to enabling furnaces of this character to be more easily constructed and assembled to meet the varying requirements and designs, at a lower cost than has been heretofore possible.

To this end I have provided fastening means of novelconstruction and arrangement comprising fasteners each for clamping two adjacent casing sections to the supports as will be more fully described hereinafter, whereby the casing sections may be fitted to furnaces and secured in position thereon without having to perforate the sections for the reception of fastening means, and whereby any one section may be easily removed without disturbing the next adjacent section or sections.

Referring to the drawings,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a hot-air furnace embodying my improvements. a portion of the casing or shell being broken away to better show the construction;

Fig. 2 is a plan sectional view part way through the furnace, taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view in perspective showing the manner in which the casing sections are secured to the supports.

As already mentioned, my improvements are in connection with hot-air furnaces having a framework and casing embodying structural features covered in my former patent. stated, in providing a closed sectional shell or framework about a heater constructed so as to permit frameworks of this character to be easily and readily adapted to the peculiar conditions of any furnace and to constitute an open framework supporting the distributing-pipe hood, to which framework casing sections are detachably secured so as to give an imperforate, sectional casing. The framework consists, preferably, of vertic'ally spaced horizontal rings or ring members held in part or entirely in fixed relative relation by vertical supports circumferentially spaced and adjustable sidewise on the rings, providing an open framework, and easing sections interposed between the supports and detachably secured thereto. It will be manifest that these features may be advantageously employed in furnaces of various design, for instance, in which the furnace is provided with either full cast iron front carrying doors for the fire vbox and ash pit or with a sectional front constructed in any suitable ,manner, and in which the fresh air inlet or other conduits enter the air chamber of the furnace at different points, since the horizontal ring members,

vertical supports and detachable casing sections may be easily fitted to meet these varying conditions.

For purpose of illustration, I have shown a furnace comprising, in general, a heater 4:, a full front 5 carrying a door 6 opening into the fire box and a door 7 opening into the ash pit, and a distributing-pipe hood 8 supported by the furnace front 5 and the sectional frame structure. In the present instance, this frame structure is in the form -of a base ring member 9, a central ring 11 joined at its ends to the furnace front 5, and a top ring 12 interposed between the These features consist, generally furnace front 5 and hood 8. Vertical supports designated generally by reference character 13 interposed between the ring members serve to support the same in fixed relative relation and are adjustable sidewise on said ring members to vary the spacing. The casing sections, designated generally by 14, shaped to inclose the areas bounded by the horizontal ring members and vertical supports are detachably secured to said supports in a manner presently apparent.

The supports 13, best shown in Fig. 3, may be suitably formed to provide flat surfaces 15 divided by a central longitudinal rib 16 and bifurcated ends shaped to receive the vertical sections of the ring members and to be slidably adjustable sidewise thereon. These supports, instead of being in the form of castings as shown in my patent, are in the form of cold rolled strips of substantially the same cross-sectional shape as the ring members 11 and 12, the ends of the supports being split longitudinally and off set, as shown clearly in Fig. 3, to receive the horizontal ring members. The offset portions of the ribs 16 are each equipped with a set screw 17, as shown, for the purpose of fixedly securing the supports in connection with the ring members.

The casing sections 14:, of sheet metal construction, are cut to size as shown, so that their marginal portions overlap the surfaces 15 of the supports 13 and also the outer faces of the ring members so as to completely cover the spaces bounded by the ring members and supports and are detachably secured to the supports by my improved fastening means. These casing sections are almost wholly insulated from the hot air compartment 18 of the furnace by dead-air spaces formed by sheet metal walls 19 and having their edges turned so as to form flanges or sides which rest against the inner sides of the casing sections, bolts 21 being employed to fixedly secure the walls 19 to said casing sections. By means of the deadair pockets thus formed, the furnace is rendered more efficient, since the air in the hotair compartment 18 will not be chilled by contact with the casing sections which are exposed to the outer cold air.

The fastening means consists, preferably, of clamping plates 22 detachably connected with the ribs 16 of the supports and shaped to engage marginal edges of the adjacent casing sections so as to clamp the same to the vertical supports. In the present instance, these clamps are in the form of curved plates, shown clearly in Fig. 3, and a screw 23 passing through a slot 24 in the plate and threadedly engaged in the rib 16 serves to draw the plate 22 into clamping engagement. It will be obvious that the plate 22 may be removed by simply loosening the screws 23. The other fastener necessary to the operation is permanently associated with the rib 16 and contains means for clamping the adjacent casing sections to the support. It consists in the present instance of a comparatively flat plate 25 rigidly secured by means of a screw 26 to the rib 16 and equipped at its opposite ends with set screws 27 adapted to clamp the easing sections to the support. As shown in Fig. 1, I have provided each support with a single plate 25. centrally mounted thereon and a pair of clamping plates 22, one adjacent to each end of the support. However, the arrangement might be different and either a greater or less number of these fasteners might be employed on each support, according to conditions. When the set screws of these fastening means are tightened the casing sections will be fixedly secured to the supports. If it is desired to remove any one casing section, the screws 23 and screws 27 acting on the particular casing section would be loosened. This permits removal of the particular casing section as will be obvious, but does not disturb the next adjacent casing section or sections, since they are still firmly held in position by the screws 27 operating thereon, even though the clamping plates 22 have been removed. Thus, by mounting fasteners of this character on the supports intermediate the edges of the casing sections which overlap said supports, it is not necessary to spend considerable time in fitting the casing sections to the supports and perforating the said sections as the case would be when fastening means are passed through the sections and engaged in the supports. If desired, finishing strips 28 may be positioned on the overlapping edges of the casing sections, as shown in Fig. 3, to enhance the general appearance, but these are not essential.

. While I have shown the casing sections next adjacent the furnace front as being bolted directly to the front, it will be obvious that supports 13 might be positioned adjacent to each side of the furnace front and secured in such position, thereby eliminating the bolting of easing sections to the furnace front. Also the central ring 11 might be .positioned either higher or lower as desired,

or a plurality of such divisional rings might be employed, if necessary.

It is believed that the foregoing conveys a clear understanding of the invention, and it should be understood that various changes in details of construction might be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claim.

I claim:

In a hot-air furnace, the combination of a heater, a casing disposed about the same including a plurality of spaced vertical supports and easing sections interposed between so as to clamp the overlapping edges of the the adjoining supports and overlapping the casing sections fixedly to the supports and edges thereof, the supports being provided to allow the casing section on one side of 1 intermediate their overlapped edges with an the support to be removed without releasing 5 outstanding portion equipped with rigid the casing section on the other side thereof.

laterally projecting portions, and set screws threaded through said projecting portions ALFRED MARTIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

